Namlish

  So, as many of you know, I am in the process of trying to get into law school. As many of you may also know, that requires writing essays. What a few of you may know (if for no other reason, than because of this blog), while Namibia's official language is English, a better term for it is "Namlish", which has infected my writing. Now, to list a whole bunch of "Namlish-English" translations would take forever. However, in light of an exchange a couple days ago, I will talk about a few of my favorites.

  I'll start with the Namlish expression that made me write this in the first place. Taylor and I were sitting outside the OK Food. I had just bought groceries to replace everything that had gone bad in the week I was without electricity because some worthless people at my ministry's head office can't pay the bills for months on end (leading to almost a month of us having no water recently, in a "semi-desert" area with no river to fill buckets in), not even when the power company says on Monday "if you don't pay by Friday, electricity is getting cut", or even almost a full week after the power company proves they weren't bluffing. (editor's note: okay, venting over) We were approached by a woman who came and chatted with us and mentioned she was selling "Kentucky." I knew what she meant, having heard this before, and even seen it on menus. Taylor, however, experienced the confusion I'm sure most of you are also currently going through. "Kentucky"is a term here used for fried chicken, as in KFC (which is one of the few American chains which we have).

   Another term I find amusing is "footing," which means to walk somewhere. I guess someone felt the need to express that they were walking by foot, rather than walking some other way. (editor's note: okay, in all likelihood, I'm betting that it has more to do with literally translations from one of the local languages)

  One common phrase that really threw me off initially is "is it?". I include the question mark, even though it's not really used as a question. Generally, it's used as an expression of surprise or shock. Probably the best comparison I can think of is the rhetorical "really?", though there are some subtle differences. (note: I've been asked to point out, for the sake of cultural education, that this one is probably a British influence, as in "innit")

  "Now," "Now now," and "I'm coming" are three terms often used together. If someone says "now", the basically mean "sometime in the next hour or 3, maybe, if I get around to it and don't get distracted." "Now now" actually means right now (like, definitely within the next hour or 3, maybe even less). Those often follow the phrase "I'm coming." Simple phrase. Makes perfect sense. Except, it actually means "I'm getting ready to leave." So, in terms of how long you'll be waiting (from longest to shortest), it goes "I'm coming," "I'm coming now," and "I'm coming now now."

  "Gyming," which is exactly what it sounds like, means going to the gym.

"Plus minus" is Namlish's version of "more of less," "roughly," "about," etc.

  "Learners" is what we call students here. It's probably an overoptimistic term for a country where a 30% can pass and people still manage to fail. Whether this term is simply the product of translations or government optimism, I don't know.

  And then there's my absolute favorite: "Robot." No, we're not talking about machines here to take over the world, or vacuum our carpets, or look like dogs and do flips. No, we're talking about traffic lights.

  A friend of mine mentioned "Even me," which is Namlish for "me too."

  In Namibia, you "Fall pregnant." Apparently, she wasn't all that coordinated that night.

Any time I cough or sneeze (a very common thing for someone with a dust allergy in a town as dusty as Khorixas), people ask if I have "a flu." A "flu" is a general term for any illness, but basically, it means anything from a cold to short of Ebola.

"Side" is a tough one to explain. It's used in phrases like "I am going town side" or "they are working on the road that side." I'm not sure there's a direct English translation (like "ha" in Hebrew), but it's roughly "in the area of" or something like that.

"Paining" is "hurt." In a sentence, it would be like "my knee was paining after that match."

  There's plenty of others. A lot deal with grammar things.

  The other big thing here is that it's been raining here. Like, a lot. As in "what river is now empty" a lot.people have been super happy about it, obviously.